Ok, so I am creating a artistic map for my players reference. They have been living in a Dwarven city for over 1000 years(well.. they were not living, but the place is mostly sealed to the surface...). Anyhow...The city proper is located in a multi level chasm with natural "terraces". Think of it like you were going to take an Aztec stepped pyramid, make a mold on top of it, and then turn the mold up side down. There are also several fairly large chambers adjoining the city proper. I am having trouble figuring out how to really make the chasm terrace effect work though.

Note, this is just the beginning of the map and the locations are not and WILL not be to scale. The other local cities will be between 100 and 300 miles away and the final map will show the cities with a rough tunnel road and the scale will be set in text upon the road linking the locations. Anyway, I was roughly intending to get something like Djekspek's ISO dungeon, but more for a region.

Ascension

03-16-2010, 11:16 PM

Nice-lookin plateaus.

Steel General

03-17-2010, 09:26 AM

Great start, looking forward to seeing it progress.

jfrazierjr

03-17-2010, 10:07 AM

Minor update. I have the chasm ledges carved out.

tilt

03-17-2010, 10:43 AM

that allready look a lot better, looking forward to seing more :)

jfrazierjr

03-17-2010, 11:32 AM

Ok.. Another update. Added Darkglass lake.

To the SE, there will be a waterfall coming from a river. The river will start in a Deep Gnome city (that sits on another small lake) about 100 miles E.

North will be a connector river which connects this lake to the Dark Sea upon which will sit a Duergar city (about 100 miles north).

South will be a Drow city.

South West will be the labyrinth, a twisting maze of caverns and passages and Minotaurs. The minotaurs were once somewhat civilized and had a city somewhere in the center, but they are mostly savages.

North West will be another Drow city.

North East will be a ruined Dwarven city sitting on the other side of the Dark Sea somewhere.

This is an ambitious project with all the hand drawn stuff, so... I might just run out of steam part way through..

jfrazierjr

03-17-2010, 03:37 PM

Very small update. I lightened the walls around the lake a bit as well as tightened up the color around the city and lake to make them more closer in style( I tend to get things messed up since I usually have to do an element at a time and then do the next and get something different about the two...).

torstan

03-17-2010, 03:41 PM

Looks cool. I recognise that background :)

The detailed line work looks nice and combines well with the colouring.

jfrazierjr

03-17-2010, 03:54 PM

Looks cool. I recognise that background :)

lol.... yea... I downloaded that and it almost made my work computer crash just with two layers due to the size, so I had to cut it in half.
:blush:

The detailed line work looks nice and combines well with the colouring.

Thanks! I hope to actually finish this one! No really, I mean it this time....:blush:

jfrazierjr

03-18-2010, 12:21 PM

Ok, so here is another update. Added the Dark Sea and a location for the old Dwarven ruins on one shore...

DevinNight

03-21-2010, 10:47 PM

This is going to be a massive map. Looking forward to seeing it grow. Nice job.

jfrazierjr

03-22-2010, 09:09 AM

Thanks everyone. After adding a few ledges to the Dark Sea as well as adding a city in the lower left corner looking out on the Sea, I think my next 2 items up for grab are to add some semblance of cavern ceilings (along with stalactites) in a few places, especially over the two water bodies. Second, I was thinking of mapping out the Western Gate and it's tunnel leading to the main city in the center. I was thinking along the lines of some mountains fading in from right to left as well as perhaps some vegetation and a gate tower to the west of the city in the center. Not sure about the last one yet.. will have to play with it to see if I can get a nice style blending upper world elements with below ground elements.

jfrazierjr

03-23-2010, 01:01 PM

Ok... so another update. I added the way to the surface (which is currently closed off). I wanted to make it feel like the surface is hazy and indistinct, so I blurred the elements the further down the road people get from the city to the exit. Not quite sure if I like that or not, but I have the road, mountains, and grass on a separate layer in case I decide to remove them later.

Djekspek

03-23-2010, 01:29 PM

that's looking pretty cool so far JFrazierJr! It also looks like a huge undertaking so I hope you can keep the spirit to finish it. When I get desperate when I zoom out my own work and see all the work that needs to be done I start a little mantra: grab another little piece, dont think about the whole map and just start drawing... well, it helps me .. anyway, looking forward seeing this progress. cheers!

jfrazierjr

03-23-2010, 02:48 PM

Another small update. Just added a few hills to the upperworld and a bit more shading work.

torstan

03-25-2010, 04:27 PM

Looking good. I think it's pretty clear that the route from the mountains into the undercity is below ground. One alternative possibility is to use a stylised line to represent routes between locations? So perhaps a dotted line for an underground road, a dashed line for a road above ground? That way you avoid any issues of scale and can draw the locations that are connected at any scale that you need to use to make them clear.